Canon 77 Bodily defects do not bar the episcopate

Ἱεροὶ Κανόνες τῶν Ἁγίων καὶ Πανσέπτων Ἀποστόλων

The Apostolic Canons · compiled in Syria in the later fourth century · The Apostolic Canons on the map

If anyone is maimed in the eye, or injured in the leg, but is worthy of the episcopate, let him become a bishop; for it is not a blemish of the body that defiles him, but pollution of the soul.

Εἴ τις ἀνάπηρος ᾖ τὸν ὀφθαλμόν, ἢ τὸ σκέλος πεπληγμένος, ἄξιος δέ ἐστιν ἐπισκοπῆς, γινέσθω· οὐ γὰρ λώβη σώματος αὐτὸν μιαίνει, ἀλλὰ ψυχῆς μολυσμός.

The Apostolic Canons, the canons

English: this site's translation of the Greek beside it. Greek: the text of the Pedalion, as transcribed at users.uoa.gr/~nektar and corrected here. About these texts.